Kwame Nkrumah Speech That Will Unite Africa

Speaker 1: Welcome to the Great African Leadership Series, where we feature great inspirational speeches and quotes from African leaders.

Kwame Nkrumah: Fellow freedom fighters, comrades and friends, it is my great pleasure to welcome you to Accra and to this Conference of African Freedom Fighters. And supporters of the growing movement for Africa's liberation and unity.

Speaker 3: Yes.

Kwame Nkrumah: It is good for our cause to have a periodic meeting of this kind, to examine our position in the great struggle to rid Africa completely and forever of imperialism and its handmaidens, Colonialism and neocolonialism. Africa is rich and not poor. As the great wealth that has been taken out of our continent over 5 centuries of spoliation And extortion, very well proved. Africa has immense actual and potential wealth— gold, diamond, copper, manganese, bauxite, iron ore, uranium, asbestos, chrome, cobalt, and hoops of other minerals. Our essential agricultural produce Yes. Yes. Africa is far from being poor. It is Africans who are poor, not Africa. And they are poor because of the uncounted profit that has been made out of the exploitation of their labor and their lands. If we are being baited to enter a European community, we must have something that community needs, and needs badly, when it pretends to offer a bonus by way of aid. When Greeks come bearing grapes, should we not look them well in the mouth?

Speaker 3: Yes.

Kwame Nkrumah: If I may mix my metaphor, but I'm sure you get my meaning. I raise this point so that it will stay in your minds when you may be tempted by the seductive promises of neocolonialism to forget the real character of colonialist imperialism. And be persuaded away from your own true interests and those of Africa. For today, we must each see ourselves as part of Africa in order that we may face colonialist imperialism and its new form, neocolonialism, on a continent-wide front. This requires some plain speaking. And for the sake of Africa, let us speak plainly.

Speaker 3: Yes!

Kwame Nkrumah: As I see it, our greatest danger stems from disunity and the inability to see that the realization of our hopes and aspirations, the realization of our objective of total African independence, and of our future progress and prosperity is inextricably bound up with the necessity to unify our policy and actions in connection with the continued struggle for independence and the greater task of economic and social reconstruction beyond it. We must therefore face the issue of African unity now, for only unity will make the artificial boundaries and regional demarcations imposed by colonialism obsolete and superfluous. African unity will thus provide an effective remedy for border disputes and internecine troubles. In a united Africa, there could be no frontier claims between Ethiopia and Somalia, or between Zanzibar and Kenya, Guinea or Liberia, or between Ghana, Togoland, and the Ivory Coast, because Because you— we would regard ourselves as one great continental family of nations. Some of the leaders, it must be confessed, do not see the struggle of their brother Africans as part of their own struggle. Even if they did, they would not be free to express their solidarity. Cheers! Are consciously created by the imperialists between Africans, where they can sit back and watch with sly satisfaction, as well as contempt, for those who fail to see how they are being used against Africa's best interests. Regrettably, regrettably, Those states include some who were among the freedom fighters of yesterday and who haven't won their independence, are willing to drop it for some token, token aid, and thereby deny to those still struggling for freedom even their moral support. Here is a phenomenon against which all African freedom fighters must be on Even though I appreciate the difficulties facing us, I must admit I find it strange to watch some of us returning willingly to the colonialist fold. This time, they don't even have to— they don't even have the excuse of being forced to subject themselves to foreign domination. It makes one wonder why so much effort and sacrifice and so many lives were given up to the achievement of independence in the first place, if it can only be so quickly and easily surrendered. We must begin to build immediately our own continental common market. For it is easy for every— anyone who studies the Common Market Organization closely to realize that the Common Market is aimed at harnessing the African countries to satisfy the profit lust of the imperialist bloc and to prevent us from following an independent, neutralist policy.

Speaker 3: Thank you.

Kwame Nkrumah: It is easy to see that the imperialists and the colonialists are determined to retain the African countries in the position of suppliers of cheap raw materials. If we do not resist this threat, and if we throw in our lot with the Common Market, we shall doom the economy of Africa to a state of perpetual subjection to the economy of Western Europe. This will, of course, hinder the industrialization of our young African states. It is impossible to think of economic development and national independence without possessing an unfettered capacity for maintaining a strong industrial power. The activities of the Common Market are therefore fraught with dangerous political economic consequences for the independent African states. The organization constitutes an attempt to replace the old system of colonial exploitation by a new system of collective colonialism, which will be stronger and more dangerous than the old evils. We are striving to liquidate from our continent. This is another reason why we should come together in a unified African economic plan, which, operating on a continental scale, can make a solid attack on the imperialist domination in Africa. We should, without delay, aim at the creation of a joint African military command. There is little wisdom in our present separate effort to build up and maintain defense forces, which, in any case, would be ineffective in a major world conflict. If we examine this problem realistically, you would ask, which single African state could protect itself against an imperialist aggressor?

Speaker 3: No!

Speaker 1: No!

Speaker 3: No!

Kwame Nkrumah: And how much more difficult this will be when some states are allowing the imperialists to maintain bases on their territories. I have already referred to the military forces which South Africa is raising and the danger it poses for the new African states and the struggle of those still Only our unity can provide us with anything like adequate protection. Those problems can best be met within a unified Africa, and it should be possible in the higher reaches of our endeavor to devise a constitutional structure which will secure which will secure the objectives I have outlined and yet preserve the sovereignty of each of the countries joining the union. Countries within the union will naturally maintain their own constitutions, continue to use their own national emblems and national anthems and other symbols and paraphernalia of sovereignty. Regional associations and territorial groupings can only be other forms of balkanization unless they are conceived within the framework of a continental union. There are existing models we can modify, which we can modify or adapt to our pattern. The United States of America, the Soviet Union, India, and China have proved the efficacy of unions embracing large stretches of land and population. Long live African freedom fighters.

Speaker 3: Hear, hear.

Kwame Nkrumah: Long live African independence. Hear, hear. Long live your struggle.

Speaker 3: Yes!

Kwame Nkrumah: And long live African unity!

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